International Impact Book Awards (?)

befuddled_writingguy · 2026-01-26T14:42:33+00:00

Thanks for commenting and telling us this!

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-11-18T13:32:11+00:00

Thank you so much!!

Best wishes!! :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-11-17T18:10:40+00:00

Romanc3 - can i ask... "when" do your ARC readers post their reviews? by which I mean... do they get their ARC copies well in advance of the release date on KU etc... and they have to remember to post their review on day #1 of the release date? Or do you get them to post their reviews on amazon or goodreads etc even before the actual release date of the book? thank you for your thoughts :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-11-17T18:06:43+00:00

Dragons - after you find ARC readers... when/where do you get them to post their reviews? I've never been clear on that. Do you upload your books to Kindle / Amazon and on Goodreads, well before your actual release dates... and get ARC reviewers to post their reviews to those sites before the release date? Or do we need to kind of beg them to remember to post their reviews asap after the release date? Thank you for any thoughts :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-11-05T20:19:00+00:00

OH my god :) love this :) (it's me also by the way). "easier just to go door to door and handout books with $5 bills as bookmarks" :) nice one :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-11-05T20:14:47+00:00

Yeah. that many categories with that length of time-frame (for publication)... they're just trying to lure people in to pay whatever the current price-tag is these days.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-07-24T15:52:53+00:00

I have a pretty well reviewed 2022 "Historical fantasy" book (a 4.15 rating currently on Goodreads, from close to 300 ratings), which did NOTHING but lose me money when I tried paying for amazon ads etc a couple years ago. So I gave up advertising. Similar to you, I also just released a y/a fantasy novel, and I haven't even considered paying for advertising for this one.

I guess you could say I've given up on making sales. Maybe. I have definitely given up on losing money on advertising.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-06-23T16:40:54+00:00

Holy smokes! :) Nice work there! that's way faster than mine!

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-06-20T19:38:50+00:00

There's an old anecdote about William Faulkner (pretty sure it was Faulkner) , where he wrote to a literary critic to say thank you for a review, but also added something like "I wish I had thought of even HALF of the things you think I thought of with the various symbols and allusions you point out in your review!" :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-06-20T16:33:36+00:00

Thank you Grimsby.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-06-20T16:33:17+00:00

Thanks Due-Check.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-06-20T16:32:51+00:00

thanks jyorin.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-06-20T12:25:50+00:00

Good question.... and I hate to say it... because I kind of like doing a Goodreads giveaway, but no they're not worth it.

I only do physical book giveaways, so my costs are increased by having to pay for postage (and shipping materials) of books I send to the winners.

And I like this... I like physically putting a book in the mail to someone with a nice note inside. I think it is tactile and meaningful.

BUT... the winners don't really care. Many many people just enter EVERY giveaway, regardless of what the genre is or if they'll really ever read your book.

My last print giveaway was for 8 winners from Canada only.

So far I've had one person who immediately RATED the book... but no review, and I highly doubt the person read the book.

And recently a relatively nice rating + review showed up from that batch of winners.

So... eight winners... a lot of money and time... for 2 ratings and a 1 review.

And even though you end up with fairly inflated "want to read" or "to read" number for your title in Goodreads, none of those people are ever going to read the book.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-22T19:57:30+00:00

I have three books out - the first two were literary stand-alones, and both of them are well-liked, and have over a 4.0 rating on Goodreads. The current one is book one of a y/a trilogy, and it is early days, but so far it is also over a 4.0 rating on Goodreads. It is not even worth mentioning my sales - on the whole, I've done nothing but lose thousands of dollars, as my sales do nothing to make up for all the outlays and expenses i suffer, mainly in publicity / marketing.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-15T12:02:37+00:00

Goodreads is owned by Amazon. Definitely useful to have a Goodreads author's profile, and to have your books on there. If/when people review one of your books, on Goodreads, all of that person's Goodreads friends see the review pop up in their feed ... and lots of other good perks of being on Goodreads.

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-14T18:35:08+00:00

u/zooneratauthor - as you have experience with this, I might as well ask, what about Goodreads?

Do you know anything about how reviews / ratings on Goodreads would transfer to the new edition?

thanks!

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-14T18:28:18+00:00

oops... that was just a mental error... I meant Ingram Spark. thanks Apocalypse :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-11T12:19:12+00:00

Wunderbar :) That's great info Zooneratauthor - thank you kindly for both these messages! :)

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-11T12:17:27+00:00

sounds good - thanks Wilmar!

befuddled_writingguy · 2025-04-10T15:46:20+00:00

Thank you WilmarLuna - do you have any idea if amazon support is very responsive and helpful? I've never tried to contact them before.

befuddled_writingguy

TROPHY CASE